Diabetes is a metabolic disease attributed to insulin and produces various kinds of complications, including, for example, eye diseases, kidney diseases, neurological disorders, cardiovascular complications, and gangrenes, since it is liable to become chronic. Prognosis of the patients is greatly influenced by the presence or absence and the degree of complications.
Deoxyglucosone is an intermediate produced in glycation of protein, which is suspected to be the potent cause of diabetes, and serves as a cross-linker between proteins to enhance production of an advanced glycated end proteins. This substance has attracted attention as an index for assessment of symptoms of diabetic complications from the facts that its blood level increased in patients with diabetes who are likely to maintain hyperglycemic conditions, especially patients with diabetes complicated with kidney diseases (Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 196, 837-843, 1993) and patients with diabetic arteriosclerosis (DIABETES, 45, SP3, S81-83, 1996). It has also been suggested that the methylglyoxal blood level increased in patients with diabetic arteriosclerosis (DIABETES, 45, SP3, S81-83, 1996). Accordingly, attention has been paid to behavior of 1,2-dicarbonyl derivatives in cases of diabetes.
However, since 1,2-dicarbonyl derivatives, represented by deoxyglucosone, are very reactive, the compounds have been so far determined by converting them to derivatives or stable forms, extracting the conversion products, and measuring the products by chromatographic analysis such as GS/MS, HPLC, or the like. In such a method, operation of extracting 1,2-dicarbonyl derivatives and procedures for chromatographic analysis are complicated and time-consuming. Therefore, it has been desired to develop a simple method for measuring 1,2-dicarbonyl derivatives in multiple specimens.